


I’ll be there and you’ll be near (And that’s the deal my dear)

by SquaresAreNotCircles



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Bisexual Steve McGarrett, Cookies, Dating, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Past Rachel Edwards/Danny "Danno" Williams, temporary attempts at Steve McGarrett/OMC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22027168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles
Summary: Steve opens his mouth and Danny can probably hear the very fake “nothing” even before it’s said, so he adds a glare. Steve deflates. “Uh,” he says, cutting his eyes away. “I found you on Grindr.”Or: Finding out that Steve is into guys does not slow Danny down in trying to set him up with someone, but the solution might be a lot closer to home than they both think. Also, chocolate chip cookies are consumed.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 21
Kudos: 376





	I’ll be there and you’ll be near (And that’s the deal my dear)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LemonVerbena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LemonVerbena/gifts).



> This is a fic that tried to go in a lot of directions at once, so in the end it ended up kind of in the middle, I think. It’s definitely not a 10.06 episode coda, but it was sort of kind of influenced by Steve saying there’s an app for everything. Mostly, though, it’s another prompt fill! This is for [LemonVerbena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonverbena) (or [lemon--verbena](https://lemon--verbena.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr), and I’ll put the full prompt in the end notes.
> 
> The title is from the song Whenever Wherever by Shakira, because why the heck not.

###### 1\. The bit with the marital upset

It’s a scary thought that even after nine years of what’s basically a marriage, there are still things about Danny that Steve doesn’t know. But it’s true, or at least it almost _has_ to be.

Unless there’s some other rational explanation, of course. Maybe it’s for a case. Maybe it’s a bad joke. Maybe someone broke into Danny’s phone, or just hacked Steve’s and put Danny’s profile in there. Maybe Danny is helping a friend but is using his own name and picture and interests because… Okay, so that one doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Steve doesn’t even realize that he keeps staring at Danny thoughtfully, but in retrospect, he probably does. He probably does it a lot.

He does it so much that finally, as they’re about to leave the office together at the end of the day, Danny snaps. “What?” he barks.

Steve opens his mouth and Danny can probably hear the very fake “nothing” even before it’s said, so he adds a glare. Steve deflates. “Uh,” he says, cutting his eyes away. “I found you on Grindr.”

Danny pulls a lot of faces very quickly before he settles on angry and conflicted. “What the hell were you doing on Grindr?”

“I asked you first.”

“You didn’t ask me anything,” Danny says, which is technically true, but also irrelevant. It seems pretty inevitable that the matter of why either of them was using a gay dating app is a mostly rhetorical question by now. Danny’s face changes into one of resignation as they stare at each other and this sinks in for both of them. “Yeah, okay. This is awkward.”

“Kinda,” Steve agrees.

Danny switches things up by letting go of his apparent awkward feelings as quickly as he diagnosed them. He looks considering, instead. “So, guys, huh? I can work with that.”

“You can?” Steve asks, entirely unsure what that’s supposed to mean, but Danny is already halfway down the hall on his way to the elevator, busily tapping away on his phone. It’s probably not Grindr, Steve tells himself. That wouldn’t make a lot of sense.

*

###### 2\. Gregory, not Grindr

It was not Grindr. It was the Facebook group for parents of kids in Charlie’s class, where Danny, as Steve understands it, left a message along the lines of _does anyone know any single gay guys looking for something serious who’d be willing to give the hunk in this picture a shot?_

And then he posted a picture of Steve. Because he was looking for ways to hook Steve up. Again.

Steve is not sure how to feel about this. He’s not sure how to feel about Gregory, either, even though he seems like a perfectly nice guy and he holds the door for Steve, which people have rarely done for him in his life. They make small talk and get along okay and have a perfectly nice date, all in all. Gregory pays, which Steve appreciates in any potential romantic partner, and then they walk back to their cars and go their separate ways, and Steve is kind of relieved he didn’t have to kiss Gregory’s face goodbye, handsome as it is. 

During the drive back home, he finds himself surprisingly annoyed with Danny, even though he himself knowingly agreed to show up to this blind date. It takes him until he’s finally pulling his front door shut behind him and he compulsively checks his phone first thing to realize what’s wrong. He’s been waiting the entire evening for Danny to call or text, and Danny hasn’t done so even once.

*

###### 3\. Men, men and M&Ms

Sam is nice too, and so are Kai and Javier. Brad less so, but at least he’s honest about not being very interested in either the food or Steve and a lot more in taking things to the closest horizontal surface for the night. 

Some of the men are attractive, a few of them even genuinely interesting people to spend an evening with, but none of them really _do_ anything for Steve. It gets to a point where he starts to wonder if maybe he’s a little less into guys than he originally thought, because surely, with a sample size this large and Danny trying this hard to get it right, there has to be _someone_ who catches his eye, right?

But no, because the first time he’s really excited about having dinner with a guy since he downloaded the app that kickstarted all of this is when Danny comes over with two large pizzas and they share them with beers and some cookies Charlie helped bake for dessert. That’s not a date. Dates are scary and a minefield of questions to avoid or deliberately ask and Steve never knows which ones are which. This, getting gorged on frutti di mare and barbecue meatlover’s while sacked out on his own couch and trading lazy barbs that make him smile a lot while chewing, this is something way too easy.

“What I still don’t get,” Steve starts at some point, around a mouthful of cookie that is liberally filled with chocolate chips and caramel M&Ms. Danny glares at him for speaking like that, so he stuffs the rest of the cookie in his mouth too before he continues. It makes talking kind of difficult, but it’s worth it for the way Danny rolls his eyes. “Wha I stiwll don’ ged, is why _hou_ were on ‘e app. Wha abou Achel?”

Danny turns his own cookie round and round in his hands. Steve chews and swallows and is starting to wonder if he should repeat that for clarity, when Danny answers anyway. “A while ago I found out that she was dating other people, okay? I guess she just kept me around to hedge her bets. I made a nice backup who’s moronic enough to fall for a few well-timed words from her every time.”

Steve’s playful mood evaporates. “Danny. Why didn’t you say something?”

“I did!” Danny gestures wildly at himself with his cookie. There seems to be a decent chance that at least half of it will be sailing through the room in a moment. “Me, not saying anything? That was saying something.”

“That makes no sense, and you know it.”

Danny makes a sad noise. “For me, it makes a twisted kind of sense, and _you_ know it.”

And yes, Steve kind of does. Danny’s relationship to Rachel has always been complicated in ways Steve can’t really grasp, and the times Danny goes silent about it are usually those when under the surface, a lot is happening. That doesn’t mean he has to just let Danny’s defeatist attitude go. “C’mon, it’s not so terrible. At least you got out in time. And you’ve still got me.”

“Wow, that’s a real comfort.” Danny says it like he’s trying to make it sound like he doesn’t appreciate having Steve at his side, but the very next thing he does is break a significant chunk from his cookie and offer it to Steve.

It’s pretty hard to feel bad about life when you’re sitting next to your best friend, munching on caramel M&Ms baked into perfectly chewy dough by an eight-year-old who loves you.

*

###### 4\. Are you calling me a long-handled gardening tool with a thin metal blade?

By the time they’re opening their second beers, they’re not so much sitting as hanging on the couch. Steve’s right arm is slowly going numb because Danny is leaning back against it so heavily, but he doesn’t even consider moving it. 

They watch a guy get checked and go down on the ice in a way that might cost him some teeth – hockey, Steve’s not sure why they’re watching it, but it seems they are – and it’s probably not the brute violence of it that inspires Danny to speak up, but something does. “So why do you have this whole string of dates that went nowhere?”

Steve is still asking himself that question, so he asks Danny another one. He feels slow and comfortable in the way he only gets from a full belly, cuddling and bad tv. “Are you calling me a hoe?”

“No,” Danny says, also without sting, “I’m genuinely asking. I found you great women, and it didn’t work. So I discovered you were into guys, and I found you great guys, and that isn’t working, either. What are you waiting for? Non-binary people?”

“Sure, if they’re cool.”

Danny shifts to get at his pants pocket, fumbling for his phone. “You know, Grace once had a piano teacher who-” 

Steve drops his empty beer bottle on the couch next to him and uses his now free hand to fold around Danny’s wrist and stop the whole phone retrieval action. He doesn’t want to have to come up with answers to asinine questions about what he wants in a romantic partner. Not when he was just feeling really happy and carefree for the first time in ages. “It’s not about anybody’s gender. I just haven’t felt a connection yet, you know?”

Danny flexes his hand. “A connection?”

“Yeah.” Steve slides his own hand from Danny’s wrist to his palm. Their fingers bump and slot together without any conscious planning on Steve’s side. He stares at it, vaguely surprised. “Connection, human to human. Where you meet them and you can just be yourself, and there’s no need to pretend or go through some complicated dance.”

Danny huffs a little, but he settles their hands near his hip and relaxes even further into the crook of Steve’s arm, so he’s probably not going to try to set Steve up again in the next minute or so. It’s a relief. “You live in a fairytale world. You’re aware of that, right?”

“Hit me if I ever burst out in song,” Steve offers.

Danny huffs again, more amused this time. “With pleasure.”

*

###### 5\. Hope

Danny sticks around for long enough that despite the two beers, he’s safe to drive by the time he starts making noises about going home. It takes another half an hour before he actually gets up. Steve walks him to the door, ostensibly to lock up after him, but in reality because it feels right to stick close to Danny for as long as he possibly can.

“Shoes,” Danny says, out of the blue. Steve must look as confused as he feels, so Danny elaborates, “I need some. Where did they go?”

They locate one of Danny’s sneakers easily, lying out in the open next to the stairs. The other requires more of a hunt. Steve eventually finds it hiding under the coffee table, so he fishes it out from under there and when he gets back up, Danny is right next to him. Steve is surprised and hovers for a moment, caught for no good reason at all.

“Well?” Danny asks, not unkindly. “Gonna give that back to me some time this century?”

Steve swallows. “Yeah.” He hands the shoe over and Danny lets it drop to the ground and steps into the now completed pair. He ties the laces into messy knots with deft fingers. Steve balls his own hand into a fist, the phantom feeling of Danny’s fingers next to his still very close to his skin.

He steps past Danny to head back to the door and open it for him.

“Steve?” 

Steve turns back around. “Yeah?” he asks, telling himself not to hope for anything.

Maybe he should have, because then he might have been less surprised when Danny kisses him. It’s chaste, a dry press of lips to lips, warm but not hot. It doesn’t rock Steve’s world, but that’s exactly what makes everything go topsy-turvy all of a sudden anyway, because _this_ is what he wants. _This_ is what he’s been looking for in all the wrong places; what he’s been missing, all along.

When Danny pulls back, Steve blinks at him. “Connection,” is all he can think to say.

Danny lets out a nervous laugh. “Yeah. I guess that was a, uh- A good night kiss.”

“It was good, yes.” He waves his hand over Danny’s face, which makes Danny frown at him critically. It also seems to make Danny’s uncertainty disappear, because finding fault with something Steve does is just about the most normal thing in the world for Danny.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Steve thought that was pretty obvious. “I’m swiping left.”

“Left?” Danny’s brow knots in a way Steve doesn’t like at all. “You’re saying no?”

“I thought that was-” Oops. “Well. I deleted the app a while ago. I don’t know how it works.”

Danny’s frown lets up and he reaches out, seemingly aimlessly, which ends in a light but lingering touch to Steve’s arm. “Why would you delete it? You hadn’t found anyone yet.”

Steve leans into Danny’s hand. “I saw you.” And then he got worried, remembering the whole paper-on-Danny’s-desk-that-Danny-didn’t-want-him-to-look-at-even-though-it-totally-wasn’t-Steve’s-fault-he-did fiasco with the bomb and the radiation poisoning and the retirement arguments, and so he abandoned ship in a belated attempt to preserve Danny’s privacy that he later totally ruined by staring at Danny all day. He’s not sure that’s a necessary part of the explanation. Seems more romantic to just leave it.

Danny does not look like he’s about to swoon. “Uh-huh,” he says. He sounds amused, though, which is good enough.

Steve gathers his courage. “I know this is a little forward, but you don’t have to go, you know. You could stay.”

Danny’s grip on Steve’s arm grows firmer. Steve briefly thinks he’s giving a squeeze before letting go, but Danny holds on, using Steve for balance while he kicks his shoes off. Steve is pretty sure one of them lands under the coffee table again, but he wants to keep looking at Danny, so he doesn’t check. “If you consider waiting nine years to ask me to stay over forward,” Danny says, nudging his remaining shoe out of the space between them with his socked foot, “I finally get what went wrong on all those dates.”

“If that’s what you want to think,” Steve tells him, because personally, he’s forming some different theories.

Danny looks up and blinks at him once, twice, and then he smiles. It makes Steve feel like chocolate chip cookies with slightly melted caramel M&Ms, and like shoulders and knees and the pads of fingers dragging together companionably, and like the soaring thrill of an amazing date without any of the fear of being let down and falling. It makes him feel like potential, like there are still new things to explore in their well-worn connection, like there are things about Danny he doesn’t know yet but wants to learn.

And it’s not scary at all.

**Author's Note:**

> The original prompt from [lemon--verbena](https://lemon--verbena.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr: “I’d like to see Steve go on some dates with guys following his casual dates thing, & once Danny finds out guys are an option, he sends more Steve’s way but none of them ever really work out. And somehow the best date Steve has is a quiet night w/ just Danny @ his house & then Danny gives him a kiss good night when he leaves, so yeah that happened.” 
> 
> -
> 
> Thank you for reading! Comments will be repaid with ~~imaginary~~ chocolate chip and caramel M&M cookies. ❤
> 
> I’m on Tumblr as [itwoodbeprefect](https://itwoodbeprefect.tumblr.com), or with my exclusively H50 (and mostly McDanno) sideblog as [five-wow](https://five-wow.tumblr.com).


End file.
